9/04/2009

MHL starts: MHK Dinamo skates past Red Army

In the first-ever MHL match, played on September 4th in Moscow, MHK Dinamo downed CSKA-Krasnaya Armiya with a 6-2 score. Everyone was probably waiting for Alexander Avtsin to get the goals for Dinamo, but instead Nikita Dvurechensky, highly ranked player for the 2009 drafted, has been the game's top player scoring two goals, one assist and having many other chances throughout the game. In the first ten minutes of the match Dinamo had almost no chance to get past the central red line, but after a couple of powerplays for the Red Army the white and blues exploited a couple of good chances on counterattacks, in both cases putting the puck high glove side, first with Roman Vasiliev, then with Nikita Dvurechensky. "It was pleasant to score the first-ever MHL hockey, of course. I trained such kind of shoots with Afanasenkov" - declared Vasiliev to the popular Russian hockey network www.allhockey.ru

After allowing the second goal, CSKA coach Andrei Parfenov replaced Anton Todykov with the U18 national team goalie Pavel Suchkov, who looked more confortable, at least at the start. In the second period the music changed as Dinamo's quick counterattacks have been better contained by the Red Army, who managed first to cut down opponents' lead after a beautiful two-on-one play inspired by Nikita Gusev finalized by Nikita Kucherov, then with Gusev, tapping in a rebound left by Dinamo goalie Sharychenkov after a shot by Kucherov again.

But in the third period the more experienced Dinamo players taken the game away scoring four goals. The eventual game winner has been scored by Nikita Dvurechensky, who crashed the net puck on the blade to put the puck past Suchkov from close range. A bunch of minutes later Dinamo scored other two goals in a 25-second range with Kombachev and Biryukov, the second on an assist by former WHL player Vitaly Karamnov. At the 57'30" Dinamo player Kuzmin made it 6-2 with a shorthanded goal.

"It was a good game. We had good nerves and we won thanks to a good display by our forwards" - declared MHK Dinamo's coach Anatoli Antipov.

Scouting notesDinamo playersAlexander Avtsin: served as first line left wing with Zotov and Kuzmin...despite having some chances, was rather quite...probably he felt the pressure...good when his team has the puck, has to learn what to do when the other team has the possession...got two penalties, one of them for revenge...can crash the net, but has to work on his finishing...not a bad performance, but either not the best one...

Vitaly Zotov: a solid center good in the face-off dots...can work on his play but is pretty all-around thanks to his good fundamentals...may be a tad more creative...

Nikita Dvurechensky: the game's MVP...scored two goals and assisted on another...good use of the size both along the boards and open ice...very good stickhandling and nose for the net...looks like a mature player, deserves a chance with Dinamo's main team...

CSKA-Krasnaya ArmiyaAlexei Marchenko: a very interesting offensive defenseman with good playmaking abilities who can serve as powerplay quarterback...good hand-eye coordination...very good puck handling, especially while going end to end with the puck on the blade...plays confidently, with some edge in the corners...has to bulk up...

Marat Urakcheev: iced as first line right winger has played surprisingly well even if not consistently...displayed a very good stickhandling...despite being not a top player managed to hold his spot on the team's first unit...

Sergei Barbashev: played not up to the expectations...has been quite uneffective throughout the whole game...served as second line left winger with Roman Lyubimov and center Artem Maslov...

1 comment:

Fantastic work. Will follow the blog very closely and with anticipation of more information. Very curious to see which of these kids emerge as young stars this coming year. Avtsin is quite a talent, but a bit of an unpolished diamond at the moment. Hopefully he flourishes. And Marchenko looks like a true up-and-comer.

Very excited about the possibilities.

May I make a suggestion for a possible blog entry? I would really love a breakdown of some of the top prospects (drafted and undrafted) in terms of the teams they will play for, those who are in the khl and those who are in the mhl. If possible, some forecast about their role and possible impact in the league would be great to have. I really value your work and would appreciate something of this nature. Perhaps you'll entertain this.

Also, very curious about possible names for the winter world juniors. Of course, disappointed by the most recent u-20 result, but that team doesn't look as deep as the one we'll see in december/january. A lot of positive reviews of this Guryanov kid - sounds like a good one.

About Me

I'm journalist who constantly collaborates with a number of online pubblications such as Hockey's Future, Mc Keen's hockey and www.russianprospects.com as Russian hockey correspondent.
I can be reached through ale.hockey.fan@gmail.com